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Light
(Matthew 5.15; 6.22, 23)
 33No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a clay pot. A lamp is put on a lampstand, so that everyone who comes into the house can see the light.
34Your eyes are the lamp for your body. When your eyes are good, you have all the light you need. But when your eyes are bad, everything is dark.
35So be sure that your light isn't darkness.
36If you have light, and nothing is dark, then light will be everywhere, as when a lamp shines brightly on you.
Jesus Condemns the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law of Moses
(Matthew 23.1-36; Mark 12.38-40; Luke 20.45-47) 37When Jesus finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him home for a meal. Jesus went and sat down to eat.
38The Pharisee was surprised that he did not wash his hands before eating.
39So the Lord said to him:
You Pharisees clean the outside of cups and dishes, but on the inside you are greedy and evil.
40You fools! Didn't God make both the outside and the inside?
41If you would only give what you have to the poor, everything you do would please God.
42You Pharisees are in for trouble! You give God a tenth of the spices from your gardens, such as mint and rue. But you cheat people, and you don't love God. You should be fair and kind to others and still give a tenth to God.
43You Pharisees are in for trouble! You love the front seats in the meeting places, and you like to be greeted with honor in the market.
44But you are in for trouble! You are like unmarked graves that people walk on without even knowing it.
45A teacher of the Law of Moses spoke up, "Teacher, you said cruel things about us."
46Jesus replied:
You teachers are also in for trouble! You load people down with heavy burdens, but you won't lift a finger to help them carry the loads.
47Yes, you are really in for trouble. You build monuments to honor the prophets your own people murdered long ago.
48You must think that was the right thing for your people to do, or else you would not have built monuments for the prophets they murdered.
49Because of your evil deeds, the Wisdom of God said, "I will send prophets and apostles to you. But you will murder some and mistreat others."
50You people living today will be punished for all the prophets who have been murdered since the beginning of the world.
51This includes every prophet from the time of Abel to the time of Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the temple. You people will certainly be punished for all of this.
52You teachers of the Law of Moses are really in for trouble! You carry the keys to the door of knowledge about God. But you never go in, and you keep others from going in.
53Jesus was about to leave, but the teachers and the Pharisees wanted to get even with him. They tried to make him say what he thought about other things,
54so that they could catch him saying something wrong.
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